His Eminence Vikenti, Archbishop of Ekaterinburg, has blessed
us to help get bells for a new church that will commemorate the
murder of the Royal Family.

The church is to be consecrated on the anniversary of the event,
this coming July.

Pyatkov & Co., which is located near Ekaterinburg and which has
supplied bells for numerous of our own clients, is casting the
church's bells.

The smaller bells have been cast already, at Pyatkov's own expense.
But the Archdiocese needs to raise an additional $200,000 for
the 9-ton "blagovestnik" (the main bass bell), and the 5-ton "polyeley"
bell.

You can contribute to the bells of this church! Donate through
our website. Just go to our secure shopping cart, and contribute
any amount you wish. One hundred percent of the money we
collect will go directly to the foundry for casting the needed
bells.

Interest
in the genuine Orthodox bell tradition and in Russia's finest
church bells has been growing steadily in America. We've
placed bells in more than 50 churches over the past three
years, and what's especially encouraging is that even tiny
mission parishes have quickly realized the value of real
bells for liturgy, outreach, and parish life, and have become
some of our most enthusiastic clients.

To
help churches learn the genuine Orthodox bell tradition,
and to keep you abreast of news, occasional opportunities,
and information, we've created this newsletter. We've taken
the liberty of subscribing you because you've shown interest
by writing to us in the past, but if you're no longer interested,
there's a secure, automated unbuscribe at the bottom of
the page-- one click and you're off the list! But we hope
you'll be eager to know more about this important area of
traditional church life and its revival both in Russia and
elsewhere!

New Russian bells at Xeropotamou, Mount Athos

Last summer, Pyatkov & Co. installed a complement of new
bells at the historic monastery of Xeropotamou, on Mount
Athos.

Xeropotamou is not far from St Panteleimon's, the Russian
monastery, whose bells (including one of about 10 feet in
diameter) are considered the best on Mount Athos. Therefore
when Xeropotamou decided to restore their zvonnitsa, they
chose Russia's premiere bells...

In the late 1800's, a Philadelphia shipyard built two of
the largest and most famous ships of the Russian Imperial
Navy-- the Varjag, whose heroic demise in the Russo- Japanese
War is still the stuff of legend in both Russia and Japan,
and the Retvizan.

A number of Russian naval personnel lived in Philadelphia
in those years, and they contributed generously to the building
of St Andrew the First-Called Cathedral. In fact, the Cathedral
is named after the Russian Navy's patron saint.

This last summer, the Russian Navy donated a wonderful set
of bells from the Perfect Cast foundry of Minsk, one of
our main suppliers....

The planned million-plus dollar auction in Madrid of a bell
purported to be that of Christopher Columbus' flagship stirred
a tempest of controversy last month. Was the bell really
that of the Santa Maria, as its discoverers say? The auction
house is quite certain it is. The scientists are a bit more
cautious....

Then, just before it went on the block, a Spanish judge
ordered it seized so Portugal could explore its claim to
own the artifact, which was found in Portugese waters....

We will devote the last article of each newsletter to tips
for bell-ringers and other practical matters in the Orthodox
tradition.

For now, this will usually be a translation of timely material
from the standard "Typikon for Church Bell Ringing", newly
published by the Moscow Patriarchate. (Everything translated
to date is available at the link below, or you can order
it in Russian from the secure shopping page on our website.)

In this issue, just in time for Lent, we present the different
kinds of ringing that the typikon specifies for the services
of the Great Fast. (We'll cover Great Week and Pascha in
a future issue.)

But since knowledge of what to ring during Lent presupposes
knowledge of what to ring the rest of the year, in this
first newsletter we have also translated some general rules
for blagovest and trezvon as well.

Be sure to write to us if you have any questions about Orthodox
bells and bell traditions!

Our purpose is not just to promote traditional bells, but
Tradition itself.

(Oh, and by the way-- we can help you to get those traditional
Orthodox church bells too. It's much easier than you might
think!)